It had been about five months since their moving to Ponyville and Lovestruck was happy to see Sweetheart had warmed up to other ponies quickly. The filly's first friend in town had turned out to be Del, not surprising as it had been the Apples that had first started to make the filly feel comfortable, her second had been Anthea, the two had actually started playing pranks on other ponies because of how similar their colors had turned out to be, and it had been during one of these excursions that Sweetheart had managed to bond with Cotton Candy, it wasn't soon after that she had warmed up to Starburst as well, and then all their other friends.
It had been while Sweetheart was helping out at Sugarcube Corner that the filly had found herself with a cutie mark, she had been transcribing a mess of recipes that Pinkie never really had taken the time to write down. When asked what the heart shaped book an cupcake shaped quill on her flank meant Sweetheart just said something about baking and stories in a manner that only Pinkie and Candy seemed to understand. Turned out that while Del was her first friend, Candy and Annie had quickly become her best friends, for entirely different reasons.
Over the months all of their friends had gotten their cutie marks, except for Candy. This was made more evident with the fact that her carnival plans kept getting delayed because something she ordered was lost or sent to the wrong town, and the ponies that had received her orders while surprised by the thing they hadn't ordered didn't want to give it up. Candy would fume about how much she had paid in advance and how she would never find a talent in entertainment if all her plans kept getting derailed by somepony consistently doing clerical errors. At first she thought had been the company she ordered from or the delivery companies she used, so after each third botch from them she would switch only to have a similar result with the new combination. Candy came over to the home of Sweetheart and Lovestruck to fume, mostly because she didn't want her other friends to see what an annoyed pony she was at this last botch, especially since she had heard from some highly reputable sources that both companies she had used were excellent at keeping to their agreements.
The scent of caramel and apples hit Candy's nose and she gave a little smile, Sweetheart was probably making a whole mess of caramel apples to take down to Sugarcube Corner, the bakery only had so much space it could dedicate to certain things and the cakes were more of the bake it type than a cheap treat en mass ponies. What surprised the bluish gray filly was the fact that Sweetheart had actually come out of the kitchen with a cake that had been fully decorated with members of the Apple clan and a number of large decorative apple trees.
“Um, what's with the cake that smells like caramel apples?” Said Candy as Sweetheart lowered the cake in her magic onto a stand that had a sign that said that if anypony touched what was on the stand they would be sorry.
After the cake was set down Sweetheart turned to her friend and said, “You sound like you're in a bad mood, and to answer your question it's for Mrs Applejack and Mr Caramel's wedding anniversary tomorrow. Del wanted to do something special for them, but he was worried they would spot his work, and we both know how much of bad liar he is,” Candy nodded, “so instead he passed me the recipe and told me to keep it for him until tomorrow morning. Also he wants this to be a surprise for them.”
“Oh,” said Candy, “it's that time of year again. Ah, pony feathers, mom and dad have their anniversary in three months!”
“Not to mention Mrs Twilight and Mr Flash have there's the month after that,” said Sweetheart with a shake of her head, “Mrs Rarity and Mr Spike have their anniversary the month before your parents too.”
“Why is it all their anniversaries are so clopping close together?” Cried Candy.
“Please watch your language,” said Sweetheart, “mom doesn't like it when you use harsh words, and I really don't want your negative outbursts ruining the freshly baked cake that Del labored Celestia knows how long over when it came to the recipe. A lot of ponies don't realize that the recipe can be harder than the dish itself.”
“I guess, but I just wasted another mass of bits, mom doesn't mind, but I'm going to owe her half our home when this is over. And you've seen the Party Palace.”
Sweetheart chuckled a bit before saying, “How long did it take you to get here?”
Candy gave a despondent sigh and said, “Half the day, I just found out last night the materials I ordered for the food stands got sent to Baltimare instead. I swear somepony really doesn't want me to get these deliveries.”
“Could I make some suggestions?” Inquired Sweetheart as she plopped herself down next to Candy.
“Sure,” said Candy, “what else do I have to lose?”
“Instead of paying them all of it in advance try half for the commission and half on delivery, that way even if the delivery is a flop you aren't out as much as you would be, and two why not have somepony you trust go and get what you've ordered instead of trusting a bunch of strangers to get what you need to you.”
“Heh,” said Candy, “look at you, a few months ago you were cringing at the the thought of interacting with new ponies and now you're giving advice on how do better business.”
“Too be fair it wasn't new ponies that scared me,” said Sweetheart, “it was my belief that everypony I met had some overarching expectations that I'd never be able to follow through on, I associated new ponies with unknown expectations, and it scared me. Yes, those mean stallions in the Crystal Empire were the catalyst for my fears, but it was my fears of what I thought they had wanted from me that galloped all over the place and settled in my fear center. You all helped with my fear over expectations, now the only expectations I care about are the kind that help motivate me to do better. I have you in part to thank for that, too me you are my best friend.”
“Thanks,” said Candy, “I was starting to think that everything I did up 'til now was pointless, you're right on both accounts, why should I pay them all my bits if it's not guarantee anything I asked for gets to Ponyville,” She got up and did dramatic pose as she said, “I am Cotton Candy, and nopony will get my way of making somepony smile! Besides, I still have give you your promised 'I'm sorry I scared you' carnival.”
“Mom just suggested a fair,” said Sweetheart as she rolled her eyes, “you're the one who jumped straight into a carnival for what to do. Now shoo, Annie's coming over later to help with a personal project of mine, and I really want the final to be a surprise for everypony.”
“Why Annie? Surely any of us could help,” said Candy.
“Yes, well Star's in Canterlot for the week, when Prism's actually being useful he tends to be a bit of blabber mouth, Del's got his chores, you've just told me what's occupying your mind and you really do need to head out to make it happen, Claire is pretty busy, T is helpful when he's not being a klutz, Whirlwind is busy today, and I really don't want any of our moms getting in on this yet.”
“Right, and Nighty's still too young to do anything beyond look cute.”
“To be fair I did ask missus Twilight if she and Nighty could occupy the the area in front of the house in about an hour, we need something to distract other ponies from what we're doing in here, and Nighty really does need to get more fresh air.”
Candy nodded and headed for the door. Just before opening the door she said, “This surprise better be super-rific, or I'm going to have to tell mom about it all, and you know how she gets when you don't do a surprise right!”
Candy opened the door to see Annie and T at the door, “So, is she she in?” Inquire Annie.
“Yuppers,” said Candy, “hey T, Sweetheart says this is project for just her and Annie right now, how about you escort me home, you know how I am with directions sometimes.”
This caused Annie to Snicker and roll her eyes as she trotted into the house and closed the door behind her, the first thing the supposedly blind unicorn 'saw' was the outline of a four tiered cake in the shape of an apple and done in colors that were found in a frighteningly accurate set of proper proportions of the colors found on Sweet Apple Acres, with the added bonus of little blurs the colors of Applejack, Caramel and Del near the top and blurs of the rest of the Ponyville Apples on the layer below. “Wow,” said the blind unicorn as she breathed in the apple and caramel scent of the cake, “this was Del's recipe?”
“Well,” the initial cake under the frosting and decorations,” said Sweetheart, “he said what he wanted in terms of decorations, I just put it all together the best I could, Del and June will be over tomorrow before their morning chores to pick it up.”
“What about missus Cheerilee and mister Big Mac?”
“They'll be running interference for the two, Del also insists that all of their friends not have any knowledge of this before it's picked up tomorrow, that's why I told mom she should spend some time bonding with missus Twilight. They trust all missus Applejack's friends, they honestly do, they just don't want to let anything slip and ruin the surprise.
“You're not worried Candy will blab about it?”
“I told her Del wanted it to be a surprise, and you know how missus Pinkie and Candy get with surprises.” Annie gave a nod.
“So, how have you been adjusting to school here in Ponville, you always seem to get pulled away by somepony and never come to be with us during free time or after the final bell.”
“You would not believe how many ponies think mom has the same ability as Princess Cadance, and how many think I have the same power,” she huffed, “fact is, every day during and after school somepony wants me to do love magic for them. I'm a baker and an author, not a love machine! No mater how many times I tell ponies this they keep asking for the same thing. Of the sixty plus odd ponies in our class forty-six have asked for me to use love magic, among those I've had thirty-nine repeaters. Of the entire class roughly seventy percent have asked me for love advice, I can only compare it to romance in novels and make a decision from there, of the fifty-two fillies in our class thirty-seven of them have asked me for relationship advice, I've yet to have a coltfriend. But enough of my ranting, we have a project due this coming Thursday, and weekends are usually the best time to get them done.”
“I'm surprised you can keep everything in order.”
“Part of my talent involves keeping things organized, that said my filing system is a total mess! I organize things based my general feelings more than some empirical system, missus Twilight would be horrified and really want me to learn a proper filing system, I just know it.”
Annie giggle a bit before saying, “if we manage to finish this project early is there anything in particular you want to do?”
“Well, I heard about what you and the princess did last week, thank the princesses mom dragged me out to Manehattan for that week, I would have probably been in the middle of making something when it hit me,” a light bulb went off in her head, “do you know any spells for changing the color of something?”
“What are you getting at?” Said Annie, “how does it relate to me?”
“Well, you know how our colors are basically the reverse of each other?”
“Um, yes,” said Annie, not entirely sure where this was going.
“What if you used a spell to have our coats and manes literally match each other, Candy and Prism wouldn't be able to us apart. And if we have you follow my basic routine, which I will provide you, and I follow yours they might think I'm you and you're me. We could fake them out, and maybe I could actually get a non-joke week for once in my life around here. While I appreciate those acts, they actually make me feel accepted around here, I would like just one day that doesn't involve an incident that almost causes me to lose my hoofing. However, project first, mind games second.”
“So, this where you were friend Anthea,” came a commanding female voice to their right.
Sweetheart looked over to the side and saw an alicorn with bat wings, “um, hello,” said Sweetheart, “I don't think we've been formally introduced.”
The alicorn smiled and said, “an illusion of a pony that is your colors reversed, how amusing.”
“Um, no she's real,” said Annie, “Nidra, this is Sweetheart, Sweetheart this Princess Nidra.”
“What are you two up to?”
“School science project,” said Sweetheart, “our assignment is to graph and name all the kinds of bugs around Ponville that aren't in the Everfree Forest. We've mad some pretty good progress.”
“Just five or six more and we're done,” said Annie, “Story and I work well together.”
Nidra cocked her head and looked at Sweetheart, “I thought you were her special somepony, she did call you Sweetheart.”
“Everypony makes that mistake a few times a month with me,” said Sweetheart, “my name is Sweetheart Tale, but Vlance called me Story when I was little, the nickname stuck.”
“Who's Vlance?” said both mares in unison, “Prince Valiant Heart,” said Sweetheart, “he was my foalsitter before we moved to Ponyille, “I called him Vlance when I was little.”
Nidra gave an amused smile before saying, “I think I just found a fun way to mess with him for a few days. So, you were planning on messing with your friends, I want in!”
“Schoolwork before play,” said Sweetheart, “the sooner its out of the way the sooner we can spend as much time as we want doing what we want, with the added bonus of having what everpony wanted us to do out of the way.”
“How do you find your little bugs anyway?” Inquired the bat winged mare.
“I read a book on entomology and as soon as I find a bug that lives in a habitat that's similar to that around Ponville I describe the bug in detail to Annie while drawing it in our field journal. The whole thing is due near the end of next week, but we know everypony else will usually waits until the last few days before their projects are due and make a bunch of stupid mistakes, we're making sure we do this right.”
“You're no fun,” said Nidra sticking out her tongue.
“Actually we should check our log before continuing,” said Annie, “How many did the teacher say we needed for this assignment?”
“Twenty or so,” said Sweetheart as she flipped through the journal, “and we have,” she slammed the book shut, “forty-seven, we're home free to do whatever we want all weekend and all of next week.”
“Good,” said Nidra with excitement, “now tell me about this little prank you two were cooking up, also explain why I should avoid that delicious smelling cake in the other room.”
“The cake is for Applejack and Caramel's wedding anniversary party, you can have a slice at the party tomorrow, until then DO NOT TOUCH and TELL NOPONY about any of what you have experienced and witnessed here,” said Sweetheart.
“Well, Story,” said Nidra, “I'll see what I can do, but no guarantees. Now, tell me about this prank of yours.”
“Since I really want to get pranked by Candy and Prism, and she wants a break from their foalishness, Story suggested we switch our colors and go about each others routines for a whole week.”
“Ooh, when?” Said an excited Nidra.
“After this coming week,” said Story, it'll take time to teach each other the nuances of what it means to be each other.”
“And you're going to need a few more ponies to help sell the act,” said Nidra, “T and Annie are almost always together,” she gave a dejected look that Story caught, but Annie was still unable to see, “so he'd know almost instantly if you weren't Annie.”
“And since I've only been seen with T a total six times since my coming to Ponville everypony seeing T suddenly spending an extortionate amount of time with 'me' might prove problematic,” said Story.
“Quick question,” said Nidra, “why are you acting like it's no big deal that I'm here? Usually ponies that learn who I am do the whole bowing to appease the princess thing, which I enjoy a great deal.”
“Three reasons,” said Story, “one, this is the place I call home, which you entered without the expressed permission of me or my mother. Two, I had Prince Valiant Heart for a foalsitter, he talked a bit about you as a way of keeping me entertained,” Nidra smiled at this, “and three, just because you're royalty doesn't mean you're entitled to everything you want. If we had met a few months ago I'd have been trying to hide from you in some corner or cubbyhole the moment I was aware of you.”
“What changed that?” Inquired Nidra.
“My friends and I, mostly Candy and me though,” said Annie, “we found just the right thing to do in order to make her feel comfortable, and she turned into a total social butterfly.”
“I guess,” said Story, “now we need to prepare for the game the week after next, since Princess Nidra clearly wants to get in on this, and I sincerely doubt we could keep her out of this I suggest she help with the preparations, and she might as well get whomever she thinks should also be in on this, just remember to keep this little circle very small. Since we're ultimately trying to prank Candy and Prism it should be a rule they can't be in on this prank, but maybe we can torture them with hinting that it's something that will involve them.”
“So, you want to play a long running prank on them,” said Nidra, “not just for the original planned time, I know just who get in on this, it's gonna be one of the best plays ever.”
“When this is over Prim and Candy will have probably pranked Annie, which is the whole point of the prank, that is to say we want to trick them into pranking Annie.”
“You are a special kind of genius,” said Nidra with a mischievous grin.
“Well, thank you, I think,” said Story, “I'll be writing the whole story down and having it transcribed for everypony to read, I am an author after all, I'm still trying to find the right kind of story to fit for me in terms of writing.”
“And why would you write about it all and make a go at publishing it?” Inquired Annie.
“Because,” said Story with a smile and pausing for dramatic emphasis, “it'll be funny to see how far we can embarrass them.”
“Oh,” said Nidra, “I really like her!” With that she was gone in a flash.
“Well, looks like Nidra has taken a liking to you,” said Annie.
“Is that good or bad?” Inquired Story.
“Both,” said Annie, “will this really get Prism and Annie to try pranking me?”
“That's the plan,” said Story, “Now let's guard the cake to make sure nopony tries to sample it before the appropriate time.